The strongest card of the game
by Dyn-in-Red
Summary: When he was a young adult, Bruce met Joseph, a little boy who had just been through the death of his parents. Years later, Batman is chasing the Joker, without knowing that their relationship is even deeper than he thought...ONE-SHOT. No actual pairing, but you can see it as BatmanxJoker.


**Hello! This is a One-shot that I had written some month ago for a friend. I've just translated it in english^^ It has references to the Killing Joke, so I hope you have read it (who havent?) **

**There is no actual pairing, but you can see it as BatmanxJoker, :D (I see it as BatmanxJoker U.U)**

* * *

Bruce sighed and rubbed his eyes, switching the light on. He woudn't sleep, anyway. It had been ten years since he didn't have a good night sleep. Ten years since…the accident. This awful accident that had cost him his parents' life. Two decisive shots in a dark alley after a usual, normal evening at the cinema…

One bad day.

One bad day that had marked him forever. He would never be the little naïve and carefree Bruce. Since this dreadful night, he had this hole in his chest, that nor his wealth, nor his acquaintances, nor whatever else could fill.

Lost in his thoughts, the young man didn't hear the knock at his door, and he was pretty surprised to see his dear butler Alfred coming into his room, a phone in hand.

"I am deeply sorry to bother you at this late hour, Sir, but this is quite urgent."

"What is it about, Alfred?"

"This is Mrs Darwin, Sir."

Bruce, after a small sigh, asked his butler to give him the phone by a sign of his hand. Mrs Darwin was at the head of the association that he had created a few years ago, to help the children that were in difficulty, those who were beaten by their parents, the new orphans, and so on…He would have appreciated that such an association had existed when he lost his parents. It would not have made the pain go away, but he would have felt less alone.

"Hello?" he said, taking the phone, trying not to sound too much sleepy.

"Mr Wayne, I am sorry to bother you, but you have to come. We are facing a very peculiar case, and you would be very helpful."

"…Very well, I'm coming right away."

"Thank you so much, Mr Wayne. You really are a nice boy."

"You're welcome."

He hung up and sighed again. Well, he really wouldn't sleep tonight..

"I am going to get your clothes and car ready, Sir."

Bruce thanked Alfred and finally decided to get out of bed.

* * *

An hour later, Bruce was inside the little building - opened night and day - in which his association was located.

"Ah, Mr Wayne!"Mrs Darwin said, seeing the young heir.

Her usually perfect make-up was ruined, indicating that she had spent a particularly tiring night.

"What's happening ?" he asked.

He was pretty confused. The members of the association usually knew how to handle every kind of situations by their own, which was convenient for Bruce who was always busy with his schedule. He was glad to finally get more involved in his association, but he couldn't help to expect for the worst…

"Come with me," she said. "I will explain you while walking."

Bruce wondered where Darwin was leading him, but he followed her without question through a corridor with apple green walls.

"By the evening, a young boy came to our door," Mrs Darwin said. "He was in a really bad state. He refused to tell us anything, except his name. The only person close to him that we have managed to contact is his psychologist. I think she will explain the situation better than me…"

She stopped in front of a door, knocked, and entered. The door led to a small office inside which a young, tired woman was sat. She was in a state of chock, Bruce could feel it.

Darwin left the room, and an awkward silence settled between Bruce and the young woman. None of them dared to pronounce a word.

"Have a seat, Mr Wayne," the woman politely said with a weak voice.

He obeyed.

"I am Isabella Miles, Joe's psychologist."

"Joe?"

She nodded.

"Joseph Careless. The little boy who came here tonight."

"Oh. I've not been introduced to him yet", he apologized.

He waited for Miles to speak again, but when he understood that she wouldn't, he asked:

"What is it about?"

She sighed and answered with a sad smile:

"You know, I've been following Joe for two years. His parents had been wanted him to see a psychologist because they had surprised him several times to speak to himself. I quickly understood that Joe was only a child with a wide imagination that sometimes enjoyed to act alone in his room and to play several characters while playing, just like a little girl would do with her dolls.

"Nothing unusual, indeed. I remember one of my friend doing the same thing when I was a young child."

"Yes, but his parents were stubborn. They wanted me to keep following him…Joe is an incredible boy…lovable, nice, funny. He knows how to catch the attention, and once again, he has a wide imagination. He always told me lots of wonderful stories…I would never have thought that…"

She bit her lips. Bruce stared at her, encouraging her to continue.

"I would have never thought that his father beat him and his mother."

Bruce felt his fist tense. This kind of monster made him sick…

"Is it for that reason that Joseph is here tonight?" he asked.

She sadly shook her head.

"No. It's way worse than that, Mr Wayne. Joe told me everything. He had only accepted to talk to me. He was crying…poor thing…."

"What happened, Mrs Miles?" Bruce insisted.

"He…It all started when he came back from school this afternoon. Everything was normal, when he heard his mother's cry from the kitchen. That's when Joe told me that he was used to this situation, and that when it happened, he would run to his bedroom, press his hands to his hears and sing out load. But today, he had enough. Oh, Mr Wayne, can you realize how brave this boy is? When only ten years old, he decided to face his father, and went to the kichen…only to find his mother…." she stuttered. "d-…dea…"

She wiped a tear from her eye and passed a hand through her hair. Bruce gently pat her shoulder, saying that it was okay, she didn't need to end her sentence. He had perfectly understood.

He had found her mother _dead_.

He was starting to get why he had been asked to come here. He knew so well what it felt to see the death of your parents.

"But it isn't all," MIles said, now crying. "His father didn't like that his son caught him in the act. So he walked towards him with a knife. Joe swore to me that he would have killed him if…"

Her voice broke again and Bruce prayed her to continue, this suspense was annoying him.

"Joe swore to me that he would have killed him if he hadn't defended himself."

"Defended?"

She nodded.

"Yes. Joe took advantage of a moment of inattention from his father to take the knife from his hands. He only wanted to scare him, to make him move back, but the man was mad. He threw himself at his son and…the knife did the rest."

"…The boy…killed him?"

Miles closed her eyes, nodding slightly.

He took his face in his hands. How could a child go to this extreme? The poor boy…He must be in such an emotional state…

"I don't know what to do, Mr Wayne," Miles admitted. "I know that your situation is not exactly similar to Joe's, but…"

"I'll talk to him," he cut.

Bruce was moved by the story of the boy. It was perhaps horrible to think such a thing, but he has happy to finally meet someone who could understand him. He wanted to help that child, to make him have a normal life again, to find him a nice family…

"It is very kind to you, Mr Wayne," Miles smiled despite her tears. "Joe is in the room next to ours. I know you'll know the right words to comfort him."

Bruce nodded. He thanked Miles, and left the office. When he opened the door of the room in which Joseph was, he felt a bump in his throat. Would he indeed be able to comfort him? Or would he act like all those hypocritically nice adults that had tried to console him after his parents' death?

He entered the room. It was tiny, though he nearly missed the young child, completely curled up in a corner of the room. He wasn't crying, simply fixing a stain on the wall. Bruce knew this look, emotionless, as if nothing mattered anymore.

"Hi," Bruce said gently.

The boy raised his big green eyes - red from hours of crying - at Bruce. He was so small, so fragile…To say that this boy had in a way killed someone was so strange…

Bruce walked towards Joseph and extended his hand at him.

"I'm Bruce."

The boy kept staring at him. Bruce felt as if we was scanned by X-rays. Those eyes were so…intense…

"…Joseph." The boy finally said in a weak voice, barely audible.

"Nice to meet you, Joseph," Bruce said in a genuine smile, sitting next to him.

They were silent for a while. Then, to Bruce's biggest surprise, it was Joseph who spoke first:

"Your parents are dead as well. That's why they send you to talk to me."

"You're a smart one, Joseph."

The boy smiled slightly and lowered his head towards the floor. His long, messy brown hair fell from each side of his face, hiding it to Bruce's eyes.

"I'm a murderer." he whispered.

Bruce frowned sadly. There was only resignation in Joseph's voice. No sadness, as if he had already cried all the tears of his body, and that he eventually get used to the idea that nothing would be the same anymore. Bruce knew this feeling.

"You did what we call self-defense. He would have probably killed you, you said it yourself."

"That's not an excuse. No one deserves to die!"

"…"

Bruce had himself thought numerous times that if he'd find Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents, he would kill him without a doubt. He knew that revenge would get him nowhere…that all he'd win would be to become a monster as well…but there was so much anger inside him…If only he could find a way to express this anger...

"Bruce?"

"…Yes?"

"What…what am I going to do, now? I wanted to go to special junior high school with drama lessons next year but…it will surely be impossible now…I don't have money, and if I'm placed in another family, I don't want to be a burden, and-"

"Money won't be an issue. I'll pay you whatever you want."

Joe fixed him straight into the eyes and for the first time, there was a true, wide smile on his lips.

"Really?"

Bruce nodded.

"Thanks, Bruce."

He shared Joseph's smile. Then the boy came closer to him, and nestled in his strong arms, crying again. Bruce wanted to console him, telling him that everything was going to be fine, but he didn't want to lie. Instead, he pet his hair, making him understand that it was okay to cry.

"From now, you can ask me whatever you want, okay?" Bruce said. "I'll be like…like a protector. Okay?"

The child took some time to calm down, then he answered:

"Okay."

Bruce hold Joseph tigh. Until now, he hadn't realize how lonely he had felt. But with Joseph, he had found someone with which he felt close to. Someone to share his pain with. Someone who looked like him.

"Uhm," Bruce said a bit awkwardly; not used to let his feelings go like that. "I…I have a deck of cards with me, wanna play?"

He thus wanted to clear the boy's head, and also to create some links with him. Joseph looked at him in the eyes again. His face was striped by numerous trails of tears, and his eyes were so red that it had become nearly impossible to guess their color.

"My parents never taught me how to play cards," he shyly admitted.

"I'm going to show you. We'll play war, it's the simplest game. All we have to do is to put our cards on the table, and the one who have the strongest card wins the card of the other. The winner is the one who gets all the cards at the end of the game."

"….Okay."

Bruce took his deck of cards and spead it on the table, under Joseph's amazed eyes.

"2 is the weakest card. And this one, the Ace, is the strongest."

"What about this one?" he asked, pointing a card at Bruce.

"Ah. This one is the joker. It's the most important card of the game. It's even stronger than the Ace."

"Stronger than the Ace?" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling.

"Yes. Stronger than any other card. If you have it, then you win."

Joseph looked at the card with an obvious joy. Bruce laughed a bit, thing that he hadn't done for years. He was about to deal the cards when Alfred came into the room.

"I am sorry to interrupt, Master Bruce," he said. "But it is getting very late, and you have an important exam, tomorrow morning…"

He greeted Joseph warmly but the boy ignored it, frustrated to not get to play with Bruce.

"Thanks Alfred," Bruce sighed. "I'm coming."

"Very well, Sir. I will be waiting for you in the car."

"You really have to go?" Joseph asked once Alfred was gone.

"I'm going to come back, don't worry. I will personally find you a nice family, alright?"

"Why can't I come with you?"

Bruce could read fear in his eyes – fear of being abandoned. He passed his hand through Joseph's hair.

"I can't. I don't have time to fully take care of a child, and I…I wouldn't be a great tutor; I'm too young for that. Besides, I feel too much…fragile. You understand, right?"

"…Yes. Yes I do."

He frowned, as if he was about to cry again.

"Will you come back tomorrow?"

"I'll try but…I have a lot of things to do and-"

"Promise me!"

Bruce looked at the child's eyes. He could see so much pain…

"Joseph…here, take that."

He gave him the joker card.

"I want you to keep it. See it as a lucky charm. Every time you'll feel bad, every time you'll feel in need, look at this card, it will remind you that you'll always be special, that you'll always be the strongest, and above all, that there will always be someone for who you mean a lot, come what may."

Joseph eyed the card with admiration. Then he smiled at Bruce.

"Thanks."

He threw himself in his arms.

"I'll keep it forever!"

"I hope so," Bruce said, amused. "Good bye, then, Joseph. And don't hesitate to call me if you need anything, okay?"

"I promise."

Bruce smiled one last time. He stood up, and before he left, he said:

"You'll never be lonely anymore….Joseph Careless."

* * *

Batman glanced at his bat-watch. How long had he been waiting for the Joker to show up, perched on this rooftop like a gargoyle frozen in the darkness of the night? The bat-signal had appeared about an hour ago, and Gordon had told him that the Joker had escaped again. Batman was waiting ever since, knowing that it would be one of those nightmarish nights again, in company of his arch-nemesis. Another dance, as the clown would say…

Sometimes Batman wondered why the Joker was so…obsessed with him. Of course, all of his enemies had a certain fixation on him, but the Joker was the worst. He had never hidden his obsession, claiming that Batman was his best friend, that he was his number one fan, and that they were meant to be. What had he possibly done to endure the morbid fascination of his enemy?

He was soon cut in his thoughts by a horribly familiar laugh. Not losing any second, he stood up, and thanks to his bat-grapple, swept down on the Joker, pressing him violently on the ground.

"Evening, Batsssss!" the Joker said, laughing loudly. "I missed so you so much. You'll have to dance me through the night to make up for your absence, HEHEHE!"

"Enough, Joker!" Batman growled, grabbing him by the colar. "Tell me what you plan for tonight!"

"Ooooh….Is it your way to ask me for a date?"

Batman hit him in the face, and the Joker laughed even more.

"Hahahahaha! Soooo rough! Don't stop, honeycakes!"

"Tell me! What have you done?!"

"Nothing, Bats, I swear!" he said in an innocent tone. "I just escaped to see you! You never visit me at Arkham, I always feel so alone…"

"Why should I visit you?" he spat with contempt.

"Because you promised me, duh!" he giggled.

"What? I never-"

"Ah, Batsy, you still don't understand, do you?"

Batman, although surprised by his nemesis' words, did not loosen up his grip. As far as he knew, the Joker could be trying to manipulate him.

"My dark knight…" the Joker sighed dreamily. "You promised me. You promised me that I wouldn't be lonely anymore…"

"I have never told you such a thing."

"Maybe not to me, indeed. The person to who you told that belongs to another life…"

Batman pressed him more to the ground, angrily.

"I don't understand a word of what you're talking about, you filthy degenerate!"

"Heeeeeheeeehehehe! I do think that you perfectly understand, deep inside. But you always have been in denial, Batsy. You deny your madness. You deny your sadistic side. You deny your undying love to me, and above all, you deny what's obvious."

Before Batman could react, the Joker pulled out one of his infamous sharp cards from his pocket, and sank it in Batman's arm who moved aside, wincing. The Joker stood up and snickered.

"Look at the card," he said.

Batman took off the card from his bloody arm.

"It's a joker, as usual," he said, crushing the card in his right hand.

"Indeed, a joker," he said. "It's…It's the strongest card of the game, after all, isn't it? The one that defeats everything…."

Batman froze. Those words….he remembered saying them a long time ago…to a young boy that he had though he could save, but that he had never seen again. A young boy who had completely disappeared after Bruce had seen him for the first time, leaving an even bigger hole in his already broken chest….

The Joker…The Joker couldn't be…

"The one that even defeats the King, " the Joker said, wrapping his arms around Batman's broad shoulders. "The most special card of the game…." He whispered to his ear. "The one that reminds me that come what may….there will always be someone for who I mean a lot…"

Batman lowered his eyes towards his enemy's. Those big green eyes, that sometimes, when he dared to look behind the murderous madness that they reflected, could express some kind of childish and innocent admiration, so close from the look that Joseph Careless had gave him, once upon a time.

Joseph Careless…

Joe Careless…

Joe Care…

_Joker._

"It was our fate, Batsy, " he whispered quietly to his knight. "Some simple minded persons like Harvey would call it chance, _hazard_…but I'm certain that an encounter that significant has nothing to do with chance. We were meant to meet. To understand each other. To complete each other. I started to live the day I talked to you for the first time. I was born again when I saw you for the second time, at Ace Chemical. You were masked, but I knew it was you. You feel the same, don't you? Joseph made Bruce live, and the Joker makes Batman feel alive… I can only exist through you. And you can't live without me."

Batman had difficulties to put up with what the Joker has just told him. During all that time…the Joker was actually this little boy so fragile that he had comforted an eternity ago?

He pulled out from the Joker.

"If you know who I am, why do you keep killing all those people? Why do you keep causing me so much pain?"

" Because pain is the thing that animates you, Bats. It's also that pain that binds us. Without it, we wouldn't exist. We would have never met. Hahaha! And besides, making you angry was the only way for you to notice me. Rather seing you hating me than ignoring me."

"If I promise to not ignoring you anymore, will you-"

"Don't even think about it. Joe is dead, and the Joker can't stop to be who he is. I kill people, I provoke chaos, and you chase me and re-establish order. Things can't be different."

"Why not?" he shouted, taking the Joker by his shoulders, forcing him to look at him in his eyes. "Joe, I can still save you. We don't have to kill each other."

The rain started to fall.

"We already had this conversation, hadn't we? Hehehe…And what did I answered to that? Ah, yes. _It's too late_."

Batman grinned slightly.

"And then you told me a joke."

"Hahaha, yeeeess! The one about the two inmates that escaped the asylum! You loved that one! You even laughed with me! My sweetest memory…and you know the respect that I have for memories!"

He kept on laughing, and the drops of rain that ran along his face soon blended with his tears of joy.

"Yes, I laughed at this joke," Batman admitted seriously. "When I think of it, this is not the reaction I should had have."

"What?" the Joker spat, glaring at him. "Don't even try to deny the fact that I made you laugh, Batman! It is my greatest pride, and-"

"Shut up."

The Joker's eyes were threatening and dark. Batman felt that he was about to attack him, so he quickly continued:

"What I'm trying to say is that I know what I should have answered to your joke."

"What, because 'hahaha!' wasn't good enough for you?"

"No. I should have told you that if I laughed, it was because the punch line wasn't _right._ The first inmate would have never let his friend fall."

The Joker opened his eyes wide, not sure about what he had just heard.

"…I'm sorry?" he stuttered.

Batman stared at the Joker's eyes, wanting him to have his entire attention.

"I would have never let you fall, Joker. Never."

"Hehe…Batman, what are you saying, silly you…"

"You perfectly understood. I will never let you fall. If you keep terrorizing Gotham, I'll be there to stop you. If you decide to go straight, I'll be there to help you. No matter the situation, I promise that you'll never be alone…Joe Care.

The Joker was speechless for a little while. Then quickly, he burst out laughing.

-…Heh. Hehehehe….HAHAHAHA! Ooooh Batssss, this punch line is even funnier that the last time! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA !

And just like last time, Batman laughed with him. And just like last time, Batman land his hands on his frail shoulders.

And just like last time, the Joker extended his hand to grab his black cape.

…

The sirens were howling….

* * *

**Hahaha! Sorry, I decided the ending to be as frustrating as the Killing Joke's. It's kind of a tribute :) You can imagine whatever you want...  
**

**Just for the info: in french, 'Joker' is pronounce like 'Joe Care'. I know it isn't the case in english, wich is more pronouced like 'Joe Kerr', but I wanted to keep this name :) **


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